REHAU is top choice for Bromley Premier Inn

When installers Abbey Glass Cardiff Ltd were asked to fit more than 160 windows for a new Premier Inn hotel being built in south London, they worked with REHAU and fabricators GRM Windows to offer a specification which would deliver big on style, acoustics and energy efficiency.

The new Premier Inn in Bromley is part of the wider Bromley South Central Scheme to regenerate the borough’s town centre and deliver a new residential and leisure quarter. The scheme is being managed by construction company McLaren and includes a public square, restaurants, bars, a nine-screen cinema, residential apartments and an underground car park. More than 200 jobs will be created by the development, which will inject £220m into the local economy over the next 10 years.

Year	2017
Building type	Hotel accommodation
Location	Bromley, London
Client	Premier Inn
Fabricator/installer	GRM Windows/Abbey Glass
Product	GENEO Alu top

Across the scheme, high priority is being given to both the quality of the development to create an attractive environment for visitors and also energy efficiency, with many of the buildings achieving an Excellent BREEAM rating. So when it came to the specification of windows for the new Premier Inn at the site, Whitbread Hotels were keen to match the aspirations of the wider regeneration project.

Whitbread Hotels has worked with Abbey Glass on the glazing requirements for a number of new Premier Inn hotels. The installation company has developed and tested three different glass units for Whitbread and completed many installations using REHAU TOTAL70 and GENEO profiles. However, the requirements of the Bromley project didn’t match any of the company’s previous specifications, so they went back to the drawing board, enlisting the help of REHAU and fabricators GRM Windows.

The Bromley specification required 168 windows, which would be 1200mm x 1600mm in size. They needed to be Turn only and because of the town centre location acoustic performance was also particularly important. To fit in with the scheme’s commitment to sustainable development, the windows had to achieve an overall UW window value of < 1.0.

Angela Worgan, Director at Abbey Glass, said: “REHAU’s GENEO® windows ticked most of the boxes for us on the Bromley Premier Inn project, but because of the size of the windows the customer wanted, we weren’t sure if the profiles could deliver all aspects of the spec.”

GENEO® window profiles are the most efficient on the UK market with an 86mm profile. The triple glazed windows can have a thermal insulation value of less than 0.85 W/m²K, helping to minimise heat loss and maximise energy savings. GENEO profiles achieve sound insulation of up to 50dB with triple glazing, well within the 41-50dB rating required for the Premier Inn specification.

The GENEO window profiles are made from RAU-FIPRO®, an innovative material based on the fibre composites used in aircraft and Formula 1 cars. This makes the windows particularly strong and stable, without the need for steel reinforcements. Their material make-up also makes them up to 40 per cent lighter than conventional window profile systems.

To ensure the GENEO windows would stack up for the Premier Inn, REHAU provided Abbey Glass with supporting evidence to prove the windows could provide the sound attenuation and thermal efficiencies required in the large dimensions specified.

Another concern for Abbey Glass was the weight of the windows. Although they are lighter than many competitor PVC-U windows because they are made using fibre composite co-extruded with PVC-U, the triple glazing of the large windows would make it particularly heavy. To ensure the gearing would be able to hold the additional weight, Richard Gambling from GRM designed customised mechanisms in accordance with Winkhaus guidelines for safe, strong opening and closing.

Richard Gambling, Owner of GRM Windows, said: “To ensure the correct solution for this development we worked with Winkhaus, which provides a range of hardware called Active Pilot. This is a fully concealed hardware, and in addition they do an additional support bar to hold a 150kg sash window. We had to bring that system to be used on this development.

“Due to the windows being so heavy in this project we also needed to bond the glass in as well so it was supported around the whole perimeter or the sash.”

Angela added: “Throughout this project we worked closely with both Steve Tonkiss at REHAU, utilising their technical team to help with reaching the solution for this specific project. Our close working relationship with Richard at GRM Windows was a crucial factor to the outcome however, as without his technical insight we would not have been able to produce such a sizeable window as was required for this unique and exciting development.”

Steve Tonkiss, Commercial Manager at REHAU, said: “We are always happy to work with our installer and fabricator customers to ensure they get the right window for a job. In this case, we were able to provide test evidence to demonstrate to Abbey Glass and their customer our GENEO profiles could do everything they needed them to. With GRM’s customised gearing, it was a great team effort all round and an innovative specification for an impressive hotel development.”